The following story is from the June 2020 edition of the "Roar Report". It is authored by Gary D'Amato, the former longtime sportswriter and columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who joined the staff as the feature writer for the Roar Report in the Fall of 2018.

Uncharted Territory

Like all of his teammates, redshirt senior Joe Vyskocil was counting down the days until Milwaukee's baseball team would play its first-ever home game at Milkmen Stadium in Franklin, a state-of-the-art ballpark that would replace antiquated Henry Aaron Field.

Meanwhile, Nicole Clarke, a senior on the women's tennis team, was in the middle of a remarkable season that saw her fashion an 11-2 record at No. 1 singles and a 9-1 mark with Nikki Milner at No. 1 doubles.

The women's volleyball team was looking forward to a four-match spring season after going 26-6 in the fall. And the men's and women's track and field teams were starting to transition to the outdoor season after finishing second and third, respectively, in the Horizon League Indoor Championships.

The date was March 12, 2020.

Life was about to change in ways that would have been imaginable just a few weeks earlier.

On that date, the NCAA announced that it was canceling the men's and women's NCAA basketball tournaments, as well as the remaining winter and spring schedules, in response to a rapidly spreading novel coronavirus.

Eight days later, UWM canceled its May commencement in line with Gov. Tony Evers' executive order barring mass gatherings. The dominoes continued to fall as the university initially extended spring break one week and eventually shut down completely, with classes and lectures moving online and students moving out of residence halls.

"Social distancing" and facemasks became the new norm as hospitals filled with COVID-19 patients, non-essential businesses closed and unemployment soared.

America was in uncharted territory.

At UWM, the reaction by student-athletes, coaches and support staff to the cancellation of their seasons and the closure of the campus ran the gamut: disbelief, disappointment, resignation and, ultimately, the realization that they would have to find a new way forward.

Here are a few snapshots:

ANDREW BASLER, men's and women's track / cross-country coach
Instead of leading his teams in what promised to be a strong outdoor season, Basler was staying "safer at home" with his wife and their two children, ages 5 and 3.

"It's been great to be home with the family a lot more, but it's definitely been an adjustment from that standpoint," he said. "Just that day-to day interaction on the track and the practices and going to the competitions, that's definitely the part I'm missing."

The NCAA granted seniors an extra year of eligibility because of the pandemic, and Basler said he anticipated "one for sure and up to four" of his seniors to return for the 2021 outdoor season. They will not be eligible to compete in the indoor season, because it was completed.

Like most aspects of the new normal, it's not a perfect solution. Basler pointed to fifth-year senior distance runner Matt Brooks of Baraboo, who came back specifically this spring to run the outdoor 10K, after finishing eighth in the Horizon League Outdoor Championships in 2019.

"All he had was an outdoor season left, and so he was training all fall and winter for this outdoor opportunity to run the 10K," Basler said. "He was already in graduate school and ready to graduate.  So that was difficult."

The event coaches communicated with their student-athletes by email, text and Zoom video calls. It was frustrating at times, and plenty of questions still don't have answers. But Basler saw the bigger picture. Safety, he said, was the No. 1 priority.

"It superseded any desire we had to be out on the track," he said. "Obviously, the health and livelihood of the human race is much more important than being able to get on the track and compete."

KYLE RECHLICZ, head women's basketball coach
One week before the NCAA canceled March Madness, Milwaukee's season ended with a loss to Northern Kentucky in the Horizon League tournament. The shutdown forced the coaches to cancel postseason work with individual players, which Rechlicz called "a very critical time period."

"That is when we would do the most skill development, where we work with the athletes individually one on one to build up who they are as players," she said. "It's a big confidence-building time period when the season ends. We missed out on that opportunity."

A move into a new house has kept Rechlicz busy, and she has communicated regularly with her players. She also prepared a Zoom video presentation and a virtual campus tour for recruits, but evaluations have been done mostly by film study.

The question that looms over everything: What will the 2020-'21 season look like?

"I keep telling our athletes to live day by day and not try to predict the future because at times it can be kind of gloomy, and I want them to stay in a positive mind frame," Rechlicz said. "I try to remind them that this is our present and it doesn't mean it's going to be what our future looks like.

"I am optimistic. I think we're resilient and, hopefully, we'll continue to be smart and keep trying to educate ourselves and not take risks, and that we can get a little bit back to normalcy."

JOE VYSKOCIL, redshirt senior, baseball
Milwaukee played 15 games, all on the road, before its season was shut down. The highlight occurred on Feb. 15, when Vyskocil tripled, homered and drove in three runs in the Panthers' lone victory, an 8-6 upset over 17th-ranked Wake Forest.

Despite UWM's record, Vyskocil saw some positive signs.

"I thought we were on the cusp of turning it around," he said. "We played some really good competition at the beginning of the year. I think it prepared us very well for conference play. Unfortunately, we didn't get to show it.

"(The cancellation) hit us pretty quick. We didn't think it would ever get to this point but it got really bad, really quick. It was kind of shocking to see how the school shut down."

Vyskocil, a biomedical engineering major, made the adjustment to online lectures and classes and has stayed in shape by lifting weights and running sprints on his own. He plans to take advantage of his extra year of eligibility.

"I plan on coming back next year for a super-super senior year," he said with a laugh. "For me, it wasn't a tough decision. I look at it like I've got my whole life to get a job. I don't want to look back when I'm older and be like, 'I could have gotten one more year.'

"For me, it's not a rush to get out of here. I want to stay here as long as I can."

JESSICA KUMKE, associate athletic director for compliance
In a normal year, Kumke would have done end-of-year in-person reviews with every student-athlete. Of course, this isn't a normal year.

"I'm trying to do as much as I can via email, just because I know that they are … getting a little tired of being on Zoom calls," she said. "We're trying to get them the information that they need and not be too intrusive into their lives right now."

An important part of Kumke's job is to keep student-athletes informed about NCAA rules for outside competition in the summer. Those opportunities don't exist this year in the U.S., but Milwaukee has plenty of international student-athletes.

"Their countries aren't going through the same thing we are and they're actually able to play on some teams," she said. "I'm trying to get them answers about what they can and cannot do. I think that's been one of the more challenging pieces, working with those international students because they're not necessarily dealing with the same thing we are here."

Coaches have questions, too, and Kumke's answer lately has been, "As of today, this is how the rule works. It could change."

"It's tough because I don't always have the answers," she said. "The NCAA staff is so busy trying to answer every one of the questions that sometimes it takes a while to get an answer back. … We're doing the best we can and I'm trying to help the student-athletes however I can, give them the best advice I have at the time and if something changes, making sure they're aware of it."

NICOLE CLARKE, senior, women's tennis
If any student-athlete had a right to be frustrated by the cancellation of spring sports, it was Clarke, a native of Scotland who was in the middle of an outstanding senior season.

"I think the whole team were pretty gutted, just because we were having so much success," she said. "It was not the way I wanted to finish. I was definitely upset. We were hoping for this to be one of the best years Milwaukee has had, especially at the Horizon League tournament. So that was difficult."

On April 22, Clarke flew back home to Coylton, near Glasgow, where she finished her classes online and graduated. Because her teammates had scattered before she left, she was unable to say goodbye in person to many of them.

"Not being able to say goodbye to people and not being able to experience graduation, it made it quite difficult to kind of accept that that was how it was going to end," she said.

Clarke majored in kinesiology and plans to attend graduate school in Scotland, with an eye on becoming a physical therapist. Though her tennis career at UWM is over, she hopes to someday return to Milwaukee.

"I really hope so, especially to catch up with teammates and just to see the coach and the staff," she said. "I think that would be great if I could."

SUSIE JOHNSON, women's volleyball coach
On March 12, the Panthers held their senior banquet and celebrated several milestones in the fall, including a 15-match win streak (at the time the longest in the nation), a program record-tying 26 victories and a plus-18 win differential from 2018 (best in the nation).

The next day, Milwaukee was set to start a four-match spring season against Loyola Chicago, coached by Johnson's sister, Amanda Berkeley. On March 28, the Panthers were scheduled to face NCAA runner-up Wisconsin at the UW Fieldhouse.

Coronavirus wiped it all out.

"It was going to be a really nice schedule," Johnson said. "So that was a bummer. I mean, we were in a really good spot with our team when this all hit. But it's just like everything – you just kind of have to figure out where you go from there, you know?"

Johnson and strength coach Tom Bjugstad gave the players a workout program to follow on their own, and Johnson had no doubt that they would attack it.

"It's a really special group," she said. "That's why we had such a good season. We had great leadership. We had great focus. It's a good group because they are so self-motivated. I've heard many of them say they'd give anything to get up and do a 7 a.m. workout right now at UWM with the strength coach."

As to what degree the upcoming fall season will be impacted, she said, "We don't have any idea. We're hopeful that we have a fall. We're planning to have a fall. My team has been goal-setting for the fall, because I need to keep them looking forward. It's my opinion that we need to have some hope.

"For me, I'll be grateful to have a season. If it has to be just conference, fine. We need these student-athletes back in universities, on the campus, because I think it's best for our world and our society."

AARON HASELHORST, assistant athletic director of sports medicine
No job in the athletic department is more hands-on than that of the athletic trainer, who works closely with athletes on injury prevention and rehabilitation. Though spring sports were canceled, athletes still required supervision as they rehabbed in-season injuries or offseason training injuries.

Haselhorst and the six athletic trainers he supervises were challenged to change the way they have always worked.

"It's definitely frustrating, and it's been a learning curve for everybody," he said. "Especially in our profession, everything is so hands-on. Some of the treatments we do, whether it be massage or dry-needling or some sort of passive modality, we just can't do anymore.

"If an athlete calls me saying they've got a hamstring strain, a lot of what I would typically do, I can't do anymore. I have to kind of figure out ways to help them when I'm not there. At times, it feels like you're not giving them the best care that you possibly could because you're not there with them. It makes it a lot more difficult to say, 'We're doing our job to the best of our abilities.'"

Haselhorst said the athletic trainers in his department all oversee different sports, and they've tried to maintain those relationships.

"When we're doing evaluations and pushing people in rehab, it helps us to lean on the relationship we've built with the athlete in the past, to know how much we can push them," he said. "We're trying to keep those relationships as consistent as we can."

He anticipates significant changes in how student-athletes are treated once the campus opens and sports are back on.

"We're probably going to have to stagger how we treat people in the training room," he said. "We probably see 150 to 200 athletes a day come through for treatments pre-practice, post-practice and rehabs. We're probably not going to be able to handle that volume in a safe way in, say, August and September.

"There are a lot of things to think about, and it's hard because it's something we've never really dealt with before."

CLARE FAUROTE, associate athletic director for academics
Faurote and two other fulltime advisors oversee what she calls "the student side of the student-athlete experience."

The advisors normally meet with students regularly on-campus, especially with freshmen and students who might need "a little extra attention." Those meetings now are being done with phone calls, Facetime or Microsoft Teams.

"That's still happening, but just remotely," Faurote said. "We get used to being in a certain routine up until spring break, so we got through half of the spring semester pretty normally. … We were fortunate to have a two-week spring break, so I think that kind of helped everyone settle into some of the new things that were happening outside of their classes and just in the world.

"The second half of the semester was just completely different than what anyone has ever been used to. It's uncharted territory. There's a lot of stuff we had to change and learn, both for staff and students, but I think we did the best that we could."